Familiar Bond
Acquisition The bond created between the Familiar and the wizard is created through the Rite of the Awakened Familiar, a common enough of a ritual often taught through most apprenticeships and sometimes found within Advantages There are a number of advantages that a familiar can bring to the young wizard. ''Empathic Link All familiars share an empathic link with their master, sharing feelings emotional states with simple, one-word concepts such as "Hungry" or "Happy". There is no range limit to this ability as the master and familiar knows exactly what the other is feeling at all times. Only general emotional content, such as fear or curiosity, can be communicated; also, seeing as how familiars naturally see the world in a different light from their masters, a misunderstanding in translation is always a possibility. Shared Sight Familiars and their Master share a sensory bond as well as one of emotions. At will a Master can view the world through their familiar's eyes simply by closing their own eyes and concentrating on the empathic bond with their familiar. This connection does have a limited range, at first, but will grow in time. '''Example:' When Strig and Alwyn were first connected he started to see through his familiar's eyes when he was sleeping or napping. He was able to experience the sensation of flight through his familiar's eyes and mind. ''Shared Resistance Every wizard must channel arcane energy through their body to cast their spells. Because the energy must be 'converted' from its raw state to a more coherent form within the spell, there is a degree of resistance experienced by all human wizards. It is for this reason that human wizards are unable to channel as much arcane energy through their bodies as the other races. By having a familiar, this resistance is lessened to a degree (the more experienced the familiar is the more resistance it can negate) and allow the wizard to channel greater amounts of energy. Disadvantages Because of the ritual, the wizard is bound to the familiar as strongly as it is with them. This can cause problems as the wizard is now aware of at least one more being's thoughts, drives and emotions. Concentration Concentration can suffer with the constant insertion of other thought that are not the wizard's. The concentration check for any complex spell is more difficult for each familiar the wizard maintains. Many feel that more than one familiar is something that 'only a foolish or elderly wizard would entertain'. Damage'' Any damage inflicted upon the familiar is also inflicted upon the wizard (though it is inflicted as subdual damage rather than physical). This is the principle reason why wizards, generally, do not send their familiars in to attack an opponent unless the creature has been specifically enchanted to increase their resilience and to decrease the feelings of harm that are transferred through the bond. Limitations While not hampered by line-of-sight, the bond with the familiar is a supernatural ability so it ceases to function within an antimagic field; it also does not cross planar boundaries. The emphatic link makes the familiar an extension of the master's being, which means that when a familiar has been somewhere or experienced something, the master has the same connection to it as the familiar has. Category:Magic/Arcane